Kozani–Amyntaio railway
The Kozani–Amyntaio railway line is a 1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in) (standard gauge) 59.4-kilometre (36.9 mi) long railway line of OSE connecting Kozani and Amyntaio in Greece.
| Kozani–Amyntaio railway | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 A Class 621 (MAN-2000) DMU at Kozani Station in March 2007, a few weeks after reopening the line | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Line length | 59.4 km (36.9 mi) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Track gauge | 1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Construction of the line for the former Hellenic State Railways started in January 1951 and was completed in 1954. It is a branch of the Thessaloniki–Bitola railway, which began operations in 1894. The line serves the town of Ptolemaida, and connects to the lignite-fired power plants of Public Power Corporation (ΔΕΗ) at Komanos freight station. The terminal station is in the southern part of the city of Kozani.
Industrial branch lines connect to the PPC power plants of Ptolemais and Agios Dimitrios, normally used by freight trains carrying light fuel oil. Another branch line to the former fertilizer plant of AEVAL is disused. The line is also used by freight trains carrying sugar beats to Platy.
The Kozani–Amyntaio line was under renovation between 2003 - 2007. On January 22, 2007, it was reopened with three trains daily,[1] which departed from Kozani, arriving in Thessaloniki in three hours (instead of four hour before the renovation). A comparable bus trip between Kozani and Thessaloniki via Egnatia Motorway takes 1.5 hours. Since 1 August 2009 the passenger service was reduced to only one train per day [2] and the passenger services were terminated in 2010. Infrequent freight trains still use the line to reach the PPC power generating stations.
Construction of a line from Kozani to Kalampaka is still under consideration.
See also
References
- "Rail link in western Macedonia reopened". Athens News Agency. 2007-01-19. Retrieved 2008-06-08.
- TrainOSE S.A. "Timetables 1 August 2009", Tables 8A/8B
Further reading
- Σε λειτουργία και πάλι η σιδηροδρομική γραμμή Αμύνταιο - Κοζάνη (in Greek). Travel Daily News. 2007-01-22. Retrieved 2008-04-12.
- I. Zartaloudis, D. Karatolos, D. Koutelidis, G. Nathenas, S. Fasoulas, A. Filippoupolitis, A. (1997). Οι Ελληνικοί Σιδηρόδρομοι (Hellenic Railways) (in Greek). Μίλητος (Militos). ISBN 960-8460-07-7.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
- Simms, W.F. (1997). The railways of Greece. Wilfried F. Sims. ISBN 0-9528881-1-4.